


That Remarkable Mettle

by Ginger Jam (skylite), skylite



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-09
Updated: 2014-01-09
Packaged: 2018-01-08 01:47:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1126941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skylite/pseuds/Ginger%20Jam, https://archiveofourown.org/users/skylite/pseuds/skylite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wolverine leaves the mansion seeking a runaway Rogue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Remarkable Mettle

**Author's Note:**

> The recognizable characters appearing in this story are © 1997, 1998, 1999 2000 Marvel Comics, all rights reserved. They are used without permission, for entertainment purposes only. No profit is being made by Indigo for writing, nor archiving this story. No infringement upon nor challenge to the rights of the copyright holders is intended; nor should any be inferred. This story may not be reproduced without permission.

The kid had damn well winnowed her small, helpless, cute, sweet, pathetic, dear, frightened, gentle way into his heart.

That was not supposed to happen.

Then again, he'd shoved his way into her heart.

He hadn't intended to.

~Damn it, it was her own fault for coming in and messing with me while I was sleeping!~ Logan growled to himself, striding slowly along with Ororo, Jean, and Scott behind their Professor. He was sure he could find out where Rogue had gone, and if he couldn't, Logan meant to locate her on his own.

~She's as good as dogmeat out there by herself,~ Logan thought, as the computer read Charles' retinas and opened its locks for him.

"Welcome to Cerebro," Charles said, and continued. Logan's mind raced, only a fraction of his attention on his surroundings as he automatically continued walking with the others. ~Why'd she do it? Why'd she come in?~ A flutter of shame bloomed in his mind. ~Yeah, yeah. I was havin' a nightmare and she wanted to comfort me 'cause I was fool enough to take her on the road before these geeks picked us up.~

There was a pregnant pause, and Logan realized Charles expected him to say something. "Well," Logan growled, half in amusement, half in annoyance, "It certainly is a big, round room."

Charles gave him a withering look, and continued nattering. Another pause, and Logan asked, "So, why can't you use it to find Magneto?" ~Magneto. What kind of stupid-ass name is 'Magneto'?~ Yeah, sure, the Prof had told him it was a guy who'd got bitter and had become 'Magneto' out of anger and vengeance.

Charles had said something in return about Magneto being able to hide from Cerebro. Logan had quizzed the Professor on how this Magneto could do such a thing.

"Because he helped me build it," Charles said, not without a note of vague embarrassment and a stronger chord of sorrow in his voice. "Now if you'll excuse me..."

Logan stepped out, pausing only to watch Charles don the helmet doohickey which frankly looked like it belonged in a B movie. Minutes passed, though they seemed like hours, and each of those intermittent seconds gave Logan one more chance to reflect on the events that had led to his current situation.

* * * * *  
Champagne glasses.

Horror. Green liquid surrounding him.

Pain. Unendurable, agonizing pain.

~Why...won't...I...die?!~

Jean had provided him the answer to that. He healed. At an inhumanly fast rate. It was his mutation, ~like Jean can read minds, Storm can mess with weather, and Scott can get on my last nerve.~

Markings on his skin.

Shiny metal.

More of the pain.

These images flickered, dancing elusively just at the edges of Logan's thoughts. He only vaguely remembered the dreams, and it had been one of those that had apparently set him to moaning in his sleep.

Little Rogue had heard him down the hall and come to see if she could help. She hadn't touched him. She couldn't. Not with her mutant power making it too dangerous to touch anyone. But she'd called his name...tried to gentle him into wakefulness with her voice.

~Too bad it didn't work,~ Logan thought with a pang of guilt. Oh, he'd awakened, all right, but in full fight-or-flight mode. He was sitting up, screaming, and popping his adamantium claws all in the same instant...

...and the look of horror and pain on Rogue's face was what brought him snapping painfully to full wakefulness. He'd pierced her clean through to the back with the damn claws.

"Somebody help! Help me!" He'd called out before even thinking.

Removing the claws would've been disastrous. Panic was setting in. He was cursing himself for ever having let this child near him...but if he hadn't, she surely would've frozen to death in one Canadian night. ~Yeah, great, Logan. So she doesn't get to fall asleep and freeze slowly -- she gets to bleed to death instead,~ he recalled thinking.

Logan had no idea, even now, why she'd reached out and touched him.

Maybe at some instinctive level she knew how her power worked even if she couldn't consciously stop it. She touched him, and he felt his soul sucked into her fingertips. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think. He couldn't do anything...until she let go.

It had been several moments later when he came back to his senses. "Is she all right?" were the first words off his lips.

Charles had assured him that she was, and explained to him what her power did. That it stole life force, and took with it the gifts of any mutant she touched. In Logan's case, it meant stealing his healing abilities had saved her life. He felt relief lighten his heart.

Unfortunately, the rest of the yard apes who lived in Xavier's school for mutants had seen what Rogue's touch could do...and the cruelty of teenagers and their quick-buzz rumor mills had driven her off.

* * * * *  
"She's at the train station." Charles' words snapped Logan out of his reverie.

He nodded, and turned to stalk up the hall.

"You can't leave the Mansion. It's just the chance Magneto is looking for." Charles called after him regretfully.

"It's my fault she's gone." Logan was a man of simplicity and directness. ~My fault she's gone. I get her back. Let this Magneto go hang.~

"She'll be all right," Storm said. "She's just upset." She clasped Logan's shoulder, meaning to comfort him. It didn't work.

Charles ordered Scott and Ororo to go after her instead.

~Yeah, right.~ Logan thought dubiously. But he made a point of keeping his mind blank until he was out of Charles "earshot." He wasn't sure there was a range for it, but he knew from waking up in the sub-basement that Charles could screw around with his mind from the full length and distance of the house: ~Damn bald geek herded me straight into his office that way, too.~

Charles wheeled past him, confident his two X-Men would retrieve Rogue.

Logan stalked off, growling.

* * * * *  
Downstairs, in the garage, Scott and Ororo paused, to select a vehicle they could take to the train station where Charles had found Rogue.

Scott frowned at Storm, silent.

"What is it?" Ororo asked him.

"Where's my motorcycle?" Scott asked. He immediately smacked the heel of his hand against his forehead. "Oh, no. He didn't take it and go anyway against the Professor's orders."

Storm raised one brow and murmured softly, "It appears he has. We had best make haste."

~Professor. He's taken my motorcycle.~

[~I am not especially surprised, Scott. He is not used to following orders, nor having anyone else he can depend on. Catch up with him as best you can. Assist him in convincing Rogue to return here where she'll be safe.~]

~Yes, sir.~

* * * * *  
~Whichever one of these bozos owns the bike, they've got decent taste,~ Logan thought to himself, hunched over the bars. The wind whipped through his hair, and the Mansion was soon out of view and the open road before him. The elation vanished, though, beneath the sense of purpose that reminded him why he was on the road. ~Rogue needs me.~ "Don't worry, kid. I'm comin'."

His fingers found a red toggle switch on the left handlebar; it wasn't something he recognized, and he knew bikes. His late, lamented, beloved Harley had been tricked up, but it hadn't had a switch either. ~Laughing gas,~ Logan figured and thumbed the lever.

The bike roared like a wild thing itself and tripled its speed. Logan gasped, shouted in astonishment, then burst into a smile. ~My kinda ride,~ he thought, cheered. ~And it'll get me to the kid quick.~

* * * * *

The girl who only a week ago had been a high school student, happily planning a future between high school and college, now sat desolately in a cramped commuter train seat. She had given no thought at all to where she'd go. She just knew she had to go.

~If Bobby, who'd been so nice t'me, told me the Professor was mad an' the other students were all wigged out by mah mutant power...ah guess ah have t'go.~ Tears threatened again, but she blinked them back. ~The Professor's school seemed so nice an' so safe. All those other kids with mutant stuff. The one who could make fire do what he wanted, and Kitty, who could walk through walls, and Jubilee with her crazy taste...~ She sighed. ~Ah shoulda known it was too good t'last.~ She sighed, wishing she could've kept the ice rose Bobby had made her as a 'welcome gift.'

She looked around the car to distract herself and spotted a young mother affectionately stroking the face of her son. ~No one'll ever be able to touch me like that again. Ah'll never be able to...~ and she shook her head, turning to stare out the window.

Rogue looked up and was astonished to see the grizzled face of the man she knew only as Logan. ~How'd he find me? What's he doin' here?~

He sat down beside her, uninvited. "Look, I -- I'm sorry about last night." He wasn't a man accustomed to having to make apologies for his actions.

"Me too," she murmured.

"You runnin' again?"

"Somebody told me the Professor was mad at me."

"Who?"

"A boy at school." She looked mortified. Ashamed. Hopeless. And that same fear that had been in her eyes when he'd found her stowed away in his bike trailer. That same fear that melted his heart and made him want to wrap her up in a blanket and protect her.

Logan had no blanket, so all he did was toss an arm around her, careful to avoid her skin. She resisted at first, then leaned into him as though he were all that kept her vertical. "Look, these people...they wanna help you. And that's a rare thing," he told her. He wasn't entirely certain he believed it for himself, but he was grown. He was dangerous, and he was the best there is at what he does. He wasn't worried about himself. The helpless girl in his arms was another story, however. He went on, not really sure of the words he said, plucking from somewhere in the scrambled morass of his memory that softening his voice might help calm her. "Come on," he finally concluded. "I'll take care of you."

Rogue sat up, eyes brightening as she dried her tears.

Logan wanted to brush one away, but he dared not.

"You ... you promise?" She began the faintest hint of a smile, hopeful.

Something in Logan rolled its eyes, but the rest of him enjoyed the warm feeling that this girl looked up to him. "Yeah," he told Rogue. "I promise, kid." ~Train's already movin'. Guess we get off at the next--~

The thought went unfinished as the train lurched to a stop. The sound of screaming metal filled the air, and Rogue looked up like a frightened doe scenting prey.

Logan, on the other hand, smelled ozone. And he felt an aching tug in his bones. ~Trouble,~ he concluded, and got to his feet. Around him, the passengers were muttering -- some simply annoyed, some concerned, and a few panicking like rabbits. Overhead, the luggage racks groaned and pulled out of their moorings, plastering themselves to the ceiling.

Then, the back of the car, door, walls, ceiling and all peeled back like the skin of a grape, and Logan realized the Professor's warning had been right.~Magneto.~

He smiled slowly and popped his claws. ~He wants a scrap, he gets a scrap.~

Magneto looked entirely unimpressed and gestured vaguely with an elegant hand. "Does that remarkable metal go through your entire body?"

Logan found himself lifted from the ground and stretched spread-eagle in the aisle. His adamantium-laced bones creaked painfully as his claws were bent. He ground his teeth rather than scream in pain.

"STOP IT!" Rogue shrilled from her seat, crying anew.

"What do you want with me?" Logan demanded.

"Dear boy, whoever said I wanted you?" Magneto smirked in a far-too-superior fashion.

Logan had only a moment to glance at Rogue and will her to ~Run!~ with only his eyes; then Magneto slingshotted him the full length of the train car, and after a dazzle-blinding moment of pain on impact that would've shattered a body not augmented as Logan's was...

..there was nothing...

..except the knowledge that...

~This Magneto has a major ass-kickin' comin' to him...~

~But first, the kid needs me again...~

And the blackness descended on his consciousness.


End file.
